Homemade Patriotic Pinwheels

If you want a little celebration, this is the perfect time of year for patriotic pinwheels! They’re easy, fun, and give you a chance to talk to your cihldren about why we really still do live in a Christian nation”¦and what they need to do to keep it that way.

Warning for small children: Pushpins involved!

Materials

– Sturdy scrapbooking paper, one sheet of a red pattern, one sheet of a blue pattern for each child.
– Pushpins, one for each child
– New pencils (Red, white, and blue if possible. If not, yellow or any color is fine.)
– Scissors
– Ruler
– Pencil, sharpened for use
– Stick glue

Preparation

Cut the craft paper into 4-by-4 or 5-by-5-inch squares.

See the illustration below for prep and to guide older children. Cut along the dotted lines for younger children. You can mark in pencil for older children. Don’t do any folding yet unless you want to make a sample.

(This template can be found at Early Play Templates)

Instructions

1. Place a piece of red scrapbook paper and a piece of blue scrapbook paper and lay them face down on a table. Apply stick glue fairly liberally. (Note: Do not use craft glue here, as it bubbles.)

2. Apply the two pieces back-to-back and flatten on the table.

3. Cut along the dotted lines in the illustration above.

4. Fold back the points of each triangle as shown.

5. Make sure you are holding all four points down with your finger.

6. Press a pushpin in the center, catching all four points. Wiggle the pin around a little bit to make the hole bigger and allow the pinwheel to eventually turn with ease.

7. Press the pushpin all the way through, then stick it deep into the eraser on the pencil. Do not squish the pinwheel in with the pin as it won’t move. In fact, leave a millimeter loose.

8. Blow and watch the patriotic pinwheels turn.

Discussion

The American flag is important to Christians and many other Americans as well. America is still the greatest nation in the world. You may hear some things in school or in your neighborhood that aren’t very good about America. You may hear that it is not a Christian nation anymore and that nobody really cares about Christianity much. This is not true.

Here are the facts:

– According to a recent ABC News survey, 83 percent of Americans say they are Christian.

– More than 40 percent of Americans believe the Creation story and that the earth is very young, according to an annual Gallup poll.

– 56 percent of Americans believe that Adam and Eve were real people.

– According to CNN, Christianity is the biggest religion on planet earth. There are 2.2 billion Christians worldwide and 1.8 Muslims, meaning that Christianity has nearly 30 percent more followers than the next largest religion.

– Most of the Christians around the world live in the US.

Let’s be grateful for how many loyal followers Jesus has, 2,000 years later, and how so many of them live in the United States, right here with us! That’s what makes our country most wonderful.

And when we blow our pinwheels, let’s think of God, who blows the breath of life onto our planet. His design makes the world go “˜round!

You might also be interested in these other patriotic activities & ideas!

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